ISLAMABAD: Following a Supreme Court decision that invalidated the party’s earlier internal polls, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is scheduled to hold new intra-party elections within the next 15 days, according to sources on Wednesday.
During the PTI’s general body meeting, which was attended by a number of prominent leaders, including former PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, information secretary general Umar Ayub, and information secretary Rauf Hassan, the decision was reached to hold the intra-party polls once more.
Because of the roadblocks preventing access to the PTI secretariat in Islamabad, the meeting was conducted online.
Leaders and members from Quetta, Peshawar, Islamabad, and other leadership groups were present at the conference, where a resolution about the party’s internal polls was reportedly required to be submitted.
The selection of Hassan as the party’s top election commissioner was another significant decision made at the conference.
The federal capital police had closed the routes leading to the PTI’s central media secretariat, according to a previous report from Geo News.
Prior to the PTI’s general body meeting, the police were apparently stationed on all routes that led to the party’s media secretariat.
Following the conviction of the party’s founder, Imran Khan, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the Toshakhana reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), there was a noticeable increase in the number of police officers stationed close to the headquarters. Earlier in the day, an accountability court in Islamabad sentenced the two to 14 years of hard prison.
The top court removed PTI’s election symbol, the “bat,” earlier this month by sustaining an order from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that prevented the party from using its well-known emblem for the next elections on February 8.
The electoral body had pointed out anomalies in their internal surveys that were against election regulations and the party’s own constitution.
In order to qualify as a political party under the Election Act of 2017 and enable all of the candidates it has fielded for the upcoming polls to unify behind a single platform after the elections, PTI, which is currently operating without a party head, must hold internal polls to elect a chairman.
This time around, Pakistan will have important but contentious elections because of the political and economic unrest in the nation.
Major political parties, such as the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, and others, will be vying for seats in the national and provincial assemblies on February 8. Almost all of these parties will be using their iconic electoral symbols. PTI, on the other hand, will not be participating in the elections this time around; instead, its candidates will run as independents throughout the nation, each using a different symbol.
